The Health & Wellness Show: Consumerism is Consuming Us!

Jedi Council Member

Big marketing companies baiting people and their children to remain forever slaves of their products are creating civilian prisoners. Industry professionals call these civilians hostages or prisoners:

Big Oil-->your car
Face cream-->your beauty
Snacks, chips, Oreo cookies-->good feeling Saturday afternoon
VideoGames-->fantasy world, where you can become rich in days and a hero and steal and kill virtual others with impunity, "its not real so its okay, yeah?"

Yes, and I think that people do not to seem to either read the instructions or take adequate care ... if something did not worked, at home we were educated to repair it, change the whatever and it kept functioning, it helps a lot to give the maintenance as it needs it, what I had observed around is that people do not care to do it anymore ... I sell my car years ago, ... the car was imported from US, it was a pickup truck, it had a little light to guide me when to change speed, the pickup truck was standard, at first I laugh, because I had driven standard all the times, latter I comprehend that it was to not force the machine and I become familiarized with the sound and the light did not appeared when I was driving it ... when I sold it to my cousin, the light pop up everytime, and he complained a lot ... no more than two years later I saw him, the "check engine" was on, and I was surprised to say the least, he did not gave the maintenance (change oil, check water, balancing tires and the kind, it needed every 50 km that it was due a year later when I sold it to him) but he did not, the pickup was making weird noises last time I saw it ....

At work we sell hair-cutting machines, every time we tell the costumer that it is quite important to read the instructions and at least apply oil to the cutting blades often ... other people kept coming to buy another one because it does not work, so they say, and sometimes they bring it ... we asked them first what it does, and we figure right away that they did not apply the oil ...

A friend change the washer machine every once and then, to which I was surprised as well, at my mother's the washer machine last 25 years, she changed it a year ago, but she still has the dryer machine ... and again with themaintenance, we use to check/clean the filter everytime it is used among other things ...

Jedi Master

Listened to this show the other day, it was a really good one. One of the hosts mentioned George Carlin on the American Dream, which reminded me of one my favorite skits of his, and quite fitting for the show :)

The Living Force

This was a good and timely show. For myself I sometimes think, "When you (over)consume, you are (yourself) consumed." I sometimes do art as a hobby and many times in the past I would buy some supplies just because some professional artist used them. It's basically buying the image and forgetting what lies behind it, in this case skill and practice. The same goes for a car or appliance, it's how you use it that counts.

And on hoarding, I do that too to an extent. I think it runs in my family. I found it interesting in the show when they talked about the hoarders TV show, that the people had some kind of trauma in their lives and the hoarding is how they deal with it. I think it comes down to a fear of loss. And if the person cannot deal with it they will hold on to all sorts of physical (and probably emotional) things.

Jedi Council Member

Found the show to be timely as well. Thanks for covering this topic. After a few years of not feeling that inclined to shop at all (clothes shopping in particular) I've been feeling the opposite, to the point that I can see it teetering on excessive and I wonder, why? Where is this coming from really? It's mostly online shopping I speak of. There is something about online shopping too, especially when you use a touch pad to scroll through sale items, that is very similar I think to gambling and being at a slot machine.

Also, 'The Story of Stuff' segment on the show made me think of an artist whose work and non-profit I just learned about this past weekend at the Oregon Coast.

From her website: http://washedashore.org/:

Washed Ashore is a non-profit community art project founded by artist and educator, Angela Haseltine Pozzi in 2010. The project is based in Bandon, Oregon, where Angela first recognized the amount of plastic washing up on the beaches she loved and decided to take action. Over the past six years, Washed Ashore has processed tons of plastic pollution from Pacific beaches to create monumental art that is awakening the hearts and minds of viewers to the global marine debris crisis.

The Living Force

This I found interesting (4m:34s). It talks about why we are attached to objects. To me it sounds like we personify things, and sort of place a social aspect onto objects. But maybe there is something to that, since some people can feel the emotions that get absorbed by objects. It talks about a tribe that is community oriented and doesn't have this "mine fever" (sounds like a more STO orientation). Interesting that celebrity tools are more effective, and I wonder if that has to do with the person's belief in the object as better.

The Living Force

This was a good and timely show. For myself I sometimes think, "When you (over)consume, you are (yourself) consumed." I sometimes do art as a hobby and many times in the past I would buy some supplies just because some professional artist used them. It's basically buying the image and forgetting what lies behind it, in this case skill and practice. The same goes for a car or appliance, it's how you use it that counts.

And on hoarding, I do that too to an extent. I think it runs in my family. I found it interesting in the show when they talked about the hoarders TV show, that the people had some kind of trauma in their lives and the hoarding is how they deal with it. I think it comes down to a fear of loss. And if the person cannot deal with it they will hold on to all sorts of physical (and probably emotional) things.

Ditto, 3D Student, I can relate with what you have written above. On the hoarding, our family home has not had a proper clear out and de-clutter as a family in many years. Even when things are broken it can take a while before they are moved or thrown out. Some family members, about 3/7, are better at this task and organising items overall.

It becomes difficult I suppose to see the bigger picture or context under that fear.

3D Student said:

This I found interesting (4m:34s). It talks about why we are attached to objects. To me it sounds like we personify things, and sort of place a social aspect onto objects. But maybe there is something to that, since some people can feel the emotions that get absorbed by objects. It talks about a tribe that is community oriented and doesn't have this "mine fever" (sounds like a more STO orientation). Interesting that celebrity tools are more effective, and I wonder if that has to do with the person's belief in the object as better.